Sotomayor described her grueling nomination process privately when she spoke to 1,800 alumni, students and faculty, the New Haven Register reports.

State Sen. Ed Meyer attended the event and said Sotomayor became teary at times, but kept the crowd laughing.

The Yale Law School grad talked about shopping for clothes to wear to her acceptance ceremony, but government officials took over the fashion decisions. They told her to bring five suits and then recommended which one she should wear, Meyer said.

The whole vetting process was intrusive, she said, according to the Yale Daily News. The FBI even investigated a parking ticket she had received two years earlier.

New Haven is not only home to Sotomayor's alma mater, it is also home to one of the most controversial issues to come up during the justice's nomination process.

Sotomayor was on a three-judge appellate panel that took the city's side in a now-famous reverse discrimination suit that several New Haven firefighters filed. Sotomayor's panel took the city's side that too few minorities scored high and it would therefore be open to discrimination lawsuits.